broke windshield wiper blade

2000 Z71.. Going down the road, we just got 8 " of snow which is pretty cool for Tennessee. Wife and I booking down the road and there is a loud THUMP on the windshield.. DANG what was that. Then I see the passenger side wiper is NOT WORKING... I get out pop it a few times thinking Ice got on it.. Nothing

I got to my moms house came back out with a flashlight.. popped the hood thinking I would see something. I don't see nothing moving with them on. Must be hidden under the black cover at bottom of the windshield.. They broke apart with only the driver side working. It makes a loud noise when it moves.

I looked at youtube to see and found nothing. Anybody know about it and have any videos on what came apart and how to fix back.

Thanks Dave in Tennessee snipped-for-privacy@usit.net

Well two possibilities. One is that the nut that retains the wiper arm has come loose. It is under the long plastic cover on the wiper arm itself. It pries off GENTLY and you will find the nut. If it has worked loose you will need to remove the arm, clean the grooves in the wiper transmission stub and IF the arm isn't damaged badly, Reinstall it. Torque the nut down and see what it does. If it is not the nut and the arm seems to move freely than it is likely that part of the the wiper transmission linkage came apart. To get to that you need to remove the wiper arms from both sides, then remove the plastic cover and see what came loose. You will find a long arm that comes from the drivers side over to the other wiper and a shorter one from the drivers side to the wiper motor crank arm. The usual problem there is that the plastic insert that snaps over the ball breaks and the arm comes loose. You can buy a package of these insert balls at many parts stores in the Help section.

Either way it is something you want to repair soon. Especially with it making noise.